Watch Decabet Video

The Decabet was a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Mr. Joseph Franklin (played by Dan Aykroyd) of the U.S. Council of Standards and Measures introduces the new "metric alphabet"-the "Decabet". It originally aired on April 24, 1976 (season 1, episode 18). In the Decabet, the first four... Show More

The Decabet was a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Mr. Joseph Franklin (played by Dan Aykroyd) of the U.S. Council of Standards and Measures introduces the new "metric alphabet"-the "Decabet". It originally aired on April 24, 1976 (season 1, episode 18). In the Decabet, the first four letters, A, B, C, and D remain the same. The letters E and F are combined into one character, Г. For example, the word "eagle" would be spelled "ГaglГ" and would be pronounced, "Ee-fag-lef" The letters G, H, and I would become one letter, "GHI" and the letters L, M, N, and O would become "LMNO", pronounced "Elemenoh", as in, "Please lmnopen the door." Lastly, the so-called "trash letters" (P through Z) would be combined into a single letter, so an ordinary "stop" sign would look like an incomprehensible mess of letters all squashed together. For example, the word 'alphabet' would be spelled A-LMNO-PQRSTUVWXYZ-GHI-A-B-EF-PQRSTUVWXYZ The sketch was written as a satirical jab at the U.S. government's attempt to convert the U.S. to the metric system. Show Less